Have Your Own Musical Time Machine With Rewind Radio
Rewind Radio (Free) by Michael Mase is your musical time machine. Feeling a bit nostalgic for the 80s, 90s, or even the turn of the millennium? What if you were in love with the tunes of a particular year, or just in the mood for some seasonal music? No matter what, Rewind Radio has you covered no matter what point in time you feel like listening to.
When it comes to my Rdio listening habits, I usually listen to my favorites, playlist, heavy rotation, or just whatever new release is out. But hey, sometimes I’m just in the mood for some good old 80s, you know? I mean, how can anyone say no to the 80s? It’s one of my favorite decades of music, and it’s always enjoyable. But of course, if I want to listen to this specific period of music, I would have to make my own playlist, subscribe to someone’s existing 80s playlist, or do an 80s station of some kind. That was the case, until Rewind Radio hit the App Store.
This slick app features a gorgeous interface that is incredibly easy to navigate and intuitive to use. Even though you probably don’t spend a lot of time looking at a music app (you listen instead), Rewind Radio is just a visual treat. The app also features an appealing typeface so it’s always easy to see what you’re listening to as well.
Rewind Radio can be used as a standalone app, though to get the full potential, you will want to have an active Rdio subscription. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use some features of the app, such as saving moments. Since I’m still subscribed to Rdio, I just logged in with my account and began using the app like normal, with all song history showing up in my Rdio account (to some embarrassment).
Once you’re in the app, just tap on the hamburger button in the top left corner to access the side panel menu, where you will be doing all of your navigating from. There are three ways to select a time period for your listening pleasure: Decades, Years, and Seasons. Decades will be just that — a list of the available decades, which range from the sixties to today. Just tap on the one you want, and music will start playing. If you’re interested in a specific year, select that option and then choose the year you want, which you can go back as far as 1960. And if you want a season, select the year first, and then whether you want winter, spring, summer, or fall for that year.
No matter what time you’re in, Rewind Radio shows you album art, album name, song, and artist info at the bottom, and you can play/pause playback at any time, or skip forward to the next song if you don’t like it. There is full AirPort support as well, and you can share the song or view it in the iTunes Store.
If you’re logged in with Rdio, you can save favorite times as “memories” for quick access later. You can also view your “Recently Played” section for your history of music, and quickly jump back in time from here if you don’t want to select the time period through the normal method. The Settings of the app allows you to log in or out of your Rdio account, as well as clear recently played and saved moments if necessary.
So far, I have to admit that I’m really liking Rewind Radio. It’s a great way to rediscover music you may have forgotten about, which can be a great thing or a terrible thing, depending on the time period you choose. So far, I’ve had the best luck with the 80s, but stuff like 1999 and the nineties brought back some hilariously bad and embarrassing moments for me. Still, the app is free and worth a look if you usually find yourself reminiscing about the specific tunes from a certain moment in time.
You can get Rewind Radio in the App Store for your iPhone absolutely free, though it works best with a paid Rdio subscription.